Sergi Federov
Sergei Viktorovich Fedorov is a Russian professional ice hockey forward and occasional defenceman currently playing for the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL). He gained fame playing for the Detroit Red Wings before tenures with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Columbus Blue Jackets. On October 25, 2008, Fedorov passed Alexander Mogilny to set a record for most goals by a Russian-born NHL player, scoring his 475th goal. =Playing career= Fedorov was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, fourth round, 74th overall. When he was young, he had to make a choice between his two favourite sports: tennis and hockey. He was equally skilled in both, but ended up going into hockey. In his pre-NHL days, he played for CSKA Moscow on a line with future NHL superstars Pavel Bure and Alexander Mogilny and was drafted in the same year as Bure and a year after Mogilny. In 1990, while CSKA Moscow was in Seattle for the Goodwill Games, Fedorov quietly slipped out of his hotel room and onto an airplane bound for Detroit. Thus, he became one of many NHL stars to have defected from the Soviet Union to play in the NHL. Fedorov was described as "three great players in one". During the 1993–94 NHL season, Fedorov won that year's Hart Memorial Trophy (being the first European-trained player to do so), the Frank J. Selke Trophy, and the Lester B. Pearson Award. He finished second in scoring behind Los Angeles' Wayne Gretzky with 56 goals and 120 points. Fedorov won another Frank J. Selke Trophy in 1996, after compiling another 100-point season with 39 goals and 107 points. One year later, he was a member of the Red Wings' first Stanley Cup championship team since 1955, contributing 20 points in 20 playoff games for Detroit. After a lengthy holdout to start the 1997–98 season, Fedorov, a restricted free agent, signed an offer sheet with the Carolina Hurricanes worth up to $38 million (with bonuses). The Red Wings matched the offer on February 26, 1998, ending Fedorov's holdout. The offer broke down as: $14 million for signing, $2 million for 21 regular season games, and $12 million for the team reaching conference finals. $28 million for 43 total games in 1997-98 is the largest single season amount paid to an NHL athlete. Fedorov helped the Red Wings win their second consecutive Stanley Cup that season. On February 18, 1999, Fedorov announced that his entire base salary for the 1998–99 season, $2 million, would be used to create the Sergei Fedorov Foundation, a charity to assist Detroit area children. During the 1990s, Fedorov was third in playoff scoring, with 134 points behind only Jaromír Jágr (135) and Mario Lemieux (186). He is only the third player in NHL history to have four consecutive 20+ point playoff campaigns, along with Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier. Fedorov won a silver medal with Russia in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan and a bronze medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. In the 2003 offseason, Fedorov signed with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim after a long contract dispute with the Red Wings, in which he rejected deals for 5 years/$50 million and 4 years/$40 million. Fedorov remained with Anaheim from 2003 to 2005. It was with the Ducks that Fedorov picked up his 1,000th point, becoming the first Russian-born and fifth European-born player to do so. In an unanticipated move, he was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets on November 15, 2005. Fedorov, as a Blue Jacket, also played his 1,000th NHL game on November 30, 2005, becoming the 13th European-born player to reach 1,000 NHL games and the 205th player overall to do so.In a 2006 interview, former Red Wing head coach Scotty Bowman said, "was one of my favorite players as a coach because he can do anything of him on ice." Bowman coached nine of Fedorov's thirteen seasons with Detroit. During the late 1990s, Bowman experimented by using Fedorov on defense and pairing him with Larry Murphy. The Red Wings senior vice-president Jim Devellano said, "I’m convinced if we left him there, he’d have won a Norris Trophy". Although he was effective playing defense, Fedorov stated that he would rather play up front. This did not prevent Blue Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock from moving Fedorov back to defense on occasion. The acrimony created during his 1997–98 holdout led to hard feelings among some Red Wings fans, and those feelings were intensified when he signed his free-agent contract with Anaheim after Detroit lost to Anaheim in the first round of the playoffs that same year. Fans seemed to take the fact that Anaheim signed him for less than the Red Wings offered him as a personal slap in the face. Fedorov has since become the most consistently booed player at Joe Louis Arena when his team comes in to play the Red Wings, as fans jeer him every time he touches the puck. Even so, he is fourth all-time in nearly every offensive category in Red Wings history behind Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman, and Alex Delvecchio. Only Howe, Yzerman, Delvecchio, and Nicklas Lidström have played more games as a Red Wing. On February 26, 2008, Fedorov was traded to the Washington Capitals for Capitals draft pick Ted Ruth. On July 9, 2008, Fedorov signed a one-year, $4 million contract with the Washington Capitals. On October 25, 2008, Fedorov passed Alexander Mogilny for most goals by a Russian-born hockey player. The previous record held by Mogilny was 473 goals. =Marriage= Sergei claimed he and tennis star Anna Kournikova were married in 2001, but later divorced in 2003. However, Kournikova's representatives deny any marriage to Fedorov. NHL totals] Category:Red Wings Category:Blue Jackets Category:Ducks Category:Capitals